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Jerky business making its home in Wiggins

Oregon Trail Jerky set to open new headquarters in Wiggins

By Stephanie Alderton

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
03/22/2016 11:12:39 AM MDT

The (temporary) sign outside the new Oregon Trail Jerky plant on Highway 52 in Wiggins. Owner Kim Hoffman hopes to be open for business in the first week of April. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

Kim Hoffman holds an Oregon Trail snack stick, one of several products that will soon be produced at her new facility in Wiggins. (Stephanie Alderton / Fort Morgan Times)

The Oregon Trail has come to Wiggins again -- Oregon Trail Jerky, that is.

Kim Hoffman, owner of the 24-year-old dried meat company, is preparing to open her new headquarters in the building that once housed Jayna's Northstar Meats on state Highway 52. Formerly based in Castle Rock, Oregon Trail produces several flavors of beef jerky and "snack sticks," which are sold in King Soopers and other stores all over Colorado, and in Walmart and Sprouts all over the country. Hoffman hopes to open the new facility in the first week of April.

"The building chose us," she said of her choice to move to Wiggins. "We looked all over the country for buildings, and we walked into this one, and it was a blank slate where we could do our own thing, and we knew it was right."

The facility was essentially a big, empty warehouse when Hoffman first saw it, but since then her company has transformed it into a factory with separate rooms for different stages of the jerky process, as well as state-of-the-art machinery from Germany.

Her decision to move to Wiggins wasn't just about the building, though. She and her husband, Todd, spend much of their time traveling to sell jerky at crowded fairs and trade shows in the Denver area, so they're excited to be able to come home to a quieter, country atmosphere.

"We deal with a lot of people," Hoffman said. "And it's noisy, and it's loud, and you talk, and you carry on, so we kind of enjoy our quiet time."

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Although their products have been produced in Oregon and Missouri in the past, this move is part of their push to become more Colorado-focused. Right now all their raw meat comes from Greeley, usually within 48 hours of being slaughtered. Oregon Trail tries to provide as many locally-sourced, gluten-free and GMO-free products as possible.

Health and safety are also big issues in the facility, which is why Hoffman wants to make sure every step of the jerky making process takes place in a different room, with foot- and hand-washing stations in between. Listeria and other food-borne diseases are big concerns in industries that deal with raw meat, she said, and she doesn't want her workers taking any chances.

Oregon Trail has already begun hiring. Right now their goal is to hire 15 to 25 new employees to begin production, but they plan to hire another 25 to 30 once production begins to expand. Hoffman said they're mainly looking to hire people who already live in Morgan County.

"Oregon Trail is a family owned and operated business that seeks to provide...a long-term employment opportunity for hardworking individuals in the area," staff member Tim Curtright said in a press release on Monday.

Hoffman doesn't plan to expand her distribution area very far outside Colorado, but she does intend to expand production. When it first opens, the facility will only be producing jerky and snack sticks, but she hopes to eventually add some of the hundreds of recipes for bratwurst, sausages and other beef products that she's gathered over the years. When the company bought their new building, they also bought a large chunk of the land around it, so they have room to expand the facility in the future.

Now she and the rest of the staff are just waiting on a USDA label, which should come in about two weeks, and they'll be ready to start production. But Hoffman and her husband are also waiting to find a new house so that they can move out of the production facility's conference room, where they've been living lately. Hoffman said they plan to build their own house.

The waiting is inconvenient, but the important thing is that they are close to their work, she said. That's why they decided to focus distribution in Colorado in the first place.

"It's good for us to finally bring everything home," Hoffman said. "That way we can have hands on daily, and run it daily. So this is where we're probably going to stay."

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